Chapter-33

Chapter 33

"Noooo!!!" I screamed as I woke up, in my bed, comfortably and thankfully not eaten by a one of the greatest scientists in the history of physics.

I looked beside me, my mother lay there, eyes shut and deeply in sleep.

I didn't want to wake her up the slightest bit as that would make her feel great discomfort, so I slyly got off the bed.

I brushed my teeth, had a quick shower and got dressed for whatever the day had in store for me.

As I went outside a ray of sunshine hit my eyes, making me immediately reflex my hand onto my face.

I realised that if I were to stay in Chennai for say, a month, before my father arrived I had to adjust to the whether.

This was not easy.

I was not used to being hot or being humid, being both at the same time was just not right.

But as the days passed and activities grew, I started adjusting to the whether.

As I had mentioned earlier my mother had a lot of activities planned for me while she was taking rest.

Handwriting lessons, tables from 1-20, Art and craft and learning a little Tamil from my grandmother were a few I remember.

Someone I also remember was Sanjana.

My grandmother's house was on the top half of a large bungalow, meaning someone was living in the lower half.

This someone happened to be Sanjana, with her father, brother and mother of course.

I don't remember much about them as it was so long ago, but I do remember that one day, when I went to her house to play her father was watching hollow man, and I happened to just peek and see the scene where the man was growing into his muscles.

I was terrified.

Sanjana and I used to play very often.

I constantly remember how at our age making a bubble out of bubble gum was a pretty big deal, so we bought some gum and had a competition.

Both of us didn't know how to make a bubble,but showed off as we did.

*Chewing* "I know how to make a bubble!" I yelled.

"I do too, my brother taught me!" said Sanjana, also chewing.

"Oh yeah, then make one!" "I'll make one when you make one!" "Okay, but I can't make one when you're looking" I said turning around.

"Pop, you see I made one, but it popped." I said turning around again.

"Okay then." she replied turning around.

"Pop, I made one too, see!" she said, just like me.

"No fair! I didn't see!"

"Then even I didn't see!"

"Then make one in front of me and I'll make one in front of you!"

"Okay..."

We both stood there chewing slowly as we looked at each other, waiting the next person to make a bubble first.

Chapter-32

Chapter 32

(I apologise for not writing for a month.)

The possibility of us humans just imagining things that don't exist is very high.

The very fact that we exist is based on an imagination, an idea, a question that led to so many discoveries.

Why do things have to come down?- Isaac Newton.

Why can't we generate light from electricity?- Thomas Edison.

Why don't I make a super awesome machine that has light coming out of it and make people sit and stare at the light for hours? -Charles Babbage. (Inventor of the computer).

I fell back on the bed.

Just thinking about this made me drift into my imagination, that was usually how I fell asleep.

By making stories.

I closed my eyes and imagined a scene...

*poof* Congratulations! You are now in the dream of this inquisitive child!

Music plays "Dora, dora,dora the explorer...boots and super cool exploradora..."

Dora and boots are sitting under a tree and Aneesha is sitting on the tree.

A man comes near the tree where Dora and boots are sitting and Aneesha is hanging.

"Hello, Newton!" Dora exclaims.

"Hi, Dora!" replies a man with a funny hairstyle.

"Come and sit under this tree with us, we can play a game!"

"Sure!"

Newton sits under the tree with Dora and boots.

Aneesha looks down, at her hands-Oh wait, she has no hands! Our Aneesha has turned into an apple!

Her skin is red and glimmering with the sunlight, she looks up and realises that the only thing that is holding her plum self down is a branch, a small twig of a branch.

"At least there's no wind..." she says to herself.

This is when a gush of wind hits her like lightning.

"So Newton what are your plans for the weekend?" asks Dora.

"Well, I was thinking of getting my hair curled, and then...." Just as he is about to continue Aneesha notices something, she's falling, right towards his..
*bonk, Aneesha hits the head of Isaac Newton*
"Why, Oh why did I have to falllll!!!!!!!!!!!" She yells in pain.
Isaac Newton unknowingly hears her yelp.
"Maybe my subconcious mind was asking this question, about the apple!" he thinks to himself.
"Why couldn't I just stay thereee!!!!!???" Aneesha yells once more.
"Why didn't it just stay there?" Isaac newton requestions.

"Dora!" he exclaims.
"What, Newton?" she asks.
"Why did the apple fall?"
"I don't know...let's ask map! Why did the apple fall map?"
"I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map,I'm the map...To help newton get to the answer to his question first you have to go to the Babbage jungle, where Charles Babbage is attempting to grow cabbages. Then, you go over the curl bridge, where all the great scientists curl their hair..."
"Oh yeah, I've been there once, the Greco-Roman curls were not that great...." Newton interrupts.
"Yeah...good thing I have short hair" Dora says.
"But she's not a scientist!?" Aneesha, the half blunt apple exclaims in the background.
"And I think I also have other plans to handle this question...like this thing I'll call after the hairstyle I don't like...Gr-"
"I know what you're going to say...I'm just so witty!" Aneesha interrupts Newton, again.
"Uh-witty?" Newton exclaims.
"Wow newton that's a wonderful name! Gr-uh-vity sounds good...what kind of a hairstyle is it.."
"Hehe, I'll tell you later.." Newton says embarrassed.
"But first...I'm going to eat this apple!" he says cheerfully.
"Nooooooooooooo" screams Aneesha, the apple.

Chapter-31

Chapter 31

The eerie atmosphere was getting the best of me.

The questions I was asking myself seemed unimportant, adrenaline was kicking in.

Nicely above our bed sat a window, the A/C was on, so the window lay there, shut.

Just then I thought of something, if anything could be sitting there, waiting for me in the dark, what would it want?

I decided to investigate.

I slowly removed the blanket off of my head.

I got up, head first and then placed my first leg on the floor.

The cold floor, eldritch atmosphere and uncertain thoughts dangling through my mind were the perfect factors for something paranormal to happen.

But nothing did.

I got off the bed, trying my best not to wake my mother, who was finally asleep after so much struggle.

I moved towards the window and stood there, glaring at the moon visible through the translucent glass.

I saw the streets of a night Chennai.

The moonlight was perfect, making its way through the buildings that stood tall.

Suddenly, I noticed something about the dark. It was beautiful.

Sure, something could exist within its clutch. But, the most vibrant part of the world came out at night.

The restless silence gave an epitome of peace.

Suddenly I heard a noise behind me.

I turned to see what had made it when my fear kicked back in.

Nothing was there, but something could be.

That's when I started to kick some sense into myself.

What were ghosts?

Humans were not the only things alive on the planet for them to have an 'after life'.

The concept of something staying back after death was so dumb.

Death was just death.

Besides, if something was really there, then we would've known by now. It would've made news!

I realized something else, people like stories, adventure, mystery in their lives.

So it's pretty obvious that they might think about something existing even though it doesn't, just for the sake of it.

After all, we have vivid imaginations.

In fact our imagination is vivid enough for us to think of something that doesn't exist and even make a story about it.

Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, even Dora is based on pure imagination.

So why can't we imagine somethig else that doesn't exist?

Chapter-30

Chapter 30

"What are you afraid of?" It asked me. 

"I'm not sure.." I replied hopelessly. 

"Do you think it's all those horror movies you've been watching?" It questioned again. 

"What horror movies?" I asked. 

"You know, that movie with the girl who is possessed...who can turn her head 360 degrees.." it said. 

"The....the ex-xorsist?" I said, frightened, thinking of the scene it was reminding me of. 

"Yeah...wait! What was that noise, Aneesha?" it said creeping me out a little more.

"What noisseee??" I asked, concentrating on reality.

"Wooosh....the rustling of the leaves...you can hear the footsteps can't you?" It described.

Now my brain was creeping me out. I knew there was nothing there, nothing to hurt me, nothing that would jump on my face with an evil laugh, but somewhere inside, fear existed.

This was because of the number of questions that existed.

"Why are you afraid of the dark?" was one 

that my mind repeatedly asked itself.

I had no answer, which as you know, bothered me A LOT.

But why was I afraid of the dark, dark was just the absence of light.

It didn't mean that something was supposed to just automatically exist.

Or did it?

The dark was a perfect hiding place for ANYTHING because, nobody could see anything in the dark.

Which meant ANYTHING could be out there.

The more I thought of this, the more scared I became.

I wondered what, for a very long time, almost the whole night.

But that was when answers kicked in, answers to the questions.

When I get questions that are really complicated and intelligent.

I eventually think about them so much, that I find answers to them.

But when others get these questions, and I try and tell them my answer to these.

They think I'm lecturing them.

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

I tiptoed towards the bed as my toes touched the cold floor, slowly. It was the best feeling in the world.

I finally got to the bed, though I could barely see a thing. The lights were off because, as you know, my mother was asleep.

I fell on the cold bed (again, best feeling in the world!) and made myself comfortable.

Then I did something peculiar. After coming from a very hot area, I was clearly not cold yet, I still felt as if I was in a sauna, I needed more time recover from my friend, the Chennai heat.

Despite this, I decided to throw on the blanket.

I wasn't feeling cold, I didn't want to feel warm, but still I just decided to put on a blanket.

Even today, before I sleep I always put on a blanket, automatically, like a robot.

Why did I do this? Did it make me more comfortable? Was I just a humanoid robot? Or did it make me feel safe?.

This concept is so stupid. For example a killer may just break into the room and look at me with a blanket over my head.

Did I think that he would just assume I'm not there.

Like, "Oh well, I see a big lumpy thing inside that blanket, shaped like a tiny 8 year old, but it's not a tiny 8 year old so, I guess I'll just leave."

So stupid.

So this time I tried taking off the blanket, but things got worse.

This time cold air touching my beautiful feet was slight unpleasant.

Actually it was very unpleasant.

Because of my evening nap (That lasted 3 hours!) I couldn't sleep.

So there I lay on the bed, my glasses off, staring into a blank space.
It was a very eerie atmosphere.

Almost as if at any moment anything could jump onto me saying, "Now that you've took your blanket off there's no one to save you. Muwahahaha! (disney villain-ish laughter)"

I couldn't bear it anymore, my beautiful, astounding, soldier like blanket that had been saving me from these 'things' for all my life had to be back, to protect me.

I briskly pulled the blanket back on. But then, my wonderful brain decided to ask a few questions, to? My wonderful brain of course!

So I, the innocent Aneesha could have a sleepless night, filled with aggression that comes with 'no answers'.

Chapter-28

Chapter 28

"What are you going to do now?" I asked her, assuming she was pretty bored.

"I think I'm going to go to bed now..." she replied, yawning slowly.

"Good night." I said.

"Good night" she echoed back.

I slowly left the room, as soon as I put a foot outside, a rush of hot air greeted my face.

I wasn't used to this at all.

How did it become so hot all of a sudden?

I walked through the heat into the kitchen, which was far more sultry.

"What happened to the weather?" I asked my aunt, who was tidying things up, and soon going to go to bed too.

"The power's gone." she replied, feeling humid.

"What?" I asked confused
"The power's gone.." she replied sadly.

Just then I remembered about the constant power cuts.

The electricity went 4-5 times a day every time we came to India.

It was so inconvenient. 

Luckily, we had an inverter. It was something that stored power before the electricity went and gave it to us when the electricity went.

But even this had a loophole, the air conditioning in the hall and some other rooms didn't work.

Leaving us with the useless fans, that barely gave any air.

"Oh...I guess I'll have to eat my pizza hot then.." I joked.
"Hahaha, Yes and remember if you feel too hot come inside, you can always eat the pizza tomorrow. I'm going to bed, if you need anything I'll be in that room. Good night Aneesha!" she said in one breath.
"Ok, Good night." I said softly.
I guess she was tired, she'd been working all day.

I took my slice of pizza and sat in the sofa, as my friendship with the chennai heat grew stronger.
We were getting to know each other, how I, being an NRI couldn't resist the slightest amount of heat, while it could keep getting worse by the minute, leaving me extremely uncomfortable.

I couldn't go where there was A/C, because the A/C was only in the bedrooms. I had to eat the pizza and I couldn't eat it in the bedroom; that would be a violation of table manners.

Keeping the pizza in mind I battled the Chennai heat with all my might for about three minutes.
But then I realised that I would eventually lose anyway.
I COULDN'T BEAR THE HEAT!
My battle was getting intense now. I had nothing to do, nowhere to go, keeping my dear pizza within my clutch.

There was only one way to escape this heat, I had to eat the pizza as fast as I could, as soon as possible. (Duh, I wasn't going to give up on it for all the heat in the world.)

I opened my mouth as wide as I could and took the biggest bite of pizza in my life.

By doing this I finished the whole slice in about 5 bites! Interestingly I can't do that today.

I ran into the kitchen with supersonic speed, washed the plate as fast as I could and ran, ran into the room like an olympian.

The wave of relief I felt as the cold air touched my feet was the most pleasant feeling in the world.
It felt as if finally, after thousands of days of living in the hot desert, I had returned home, home to my dear Air conditioning.

Chapter-27

Chapter 27


The more I thought about the cheesy goodness of my favorite food, the more I wanted some.
Realising the situation was not that bad anymore, I shyly turned towards my aunt and dabbed her lightly on the shoulder.

"Yes, Aneesha" she said.

"Can I..have some...pizza...you know because everything is fine...and I'm hungry..so.." I spoke unconfidently, hoping I was not being too rude for the situation.

My aunt laughed.
"Sure! Wait a minute, I'll get the box." she said merrily moving into the kitchen.

Just then a question invaded my mind. 
Why was it that a round pizza was kept in a square box?
Its so weird! A pizza is made as a circle, cut into triangles and placed in a square box.
It's a whole geometry set by itself.
No wonder I was so good at math.

I saw the pizza as my aunt brought it in. How couldn't I? As it entered a sweet, delicious and mouth watering aroma spread through the room.

I sat on the table, ready for a slice (or two). 
Just then I felt as if I was forgetting something, someone maybe?

Then I remembered about my poor mother, going through so much pain.
She was in her room, probably trying to sleep on an empty stomach.

How selfish of me, completely forgetting about her. Well, when it comes to pizza I do forget quite a lot of things.
I got off of my chair and walked towards my mothers room.
As I had expected she was laying on the bed, half asleep.
"Amma (mom)?" I asked.
"Yeah Aneesha" she said, slowly trying to get up.
"Did you have your dinner, Amma?" I asked her.
"Yes, Aneesha, when your grandmother and I had gone to the doctor, she suggested buying a meal." she answered.

I didn't quite understand what she said. Suggested a meal? She only suggested a meal, that didn't mean they ate the meal. 

As my aunt had said my mother couldn't eat junk, and I specifically remember my mommy telling me that everything we find outside is junk.

"So you ate outside?" I asked my mother, trying to clarify my queries.

"Yes, but we ate at the hospitals cafeteria."
she said, clarifying my queries.
That made sense.
She could obviously eat at the hospital, it was the healthiest place ever.

Chapter-26

Chapter 26


I immediately selected the baby names option. The results were, links?
I didn't quite understand the concept of links back then. Did they lead you to some sort of website?
I imagine how the next generation will be laughing at us for this. 

"You had to type in the searches? Then take all the pain and effort to move your finger and click on a link?" "Hahaha." 

Just like we laugh today at life before the internet, the good old days when children used to see the trees and play hide and seek. 

"But videogames are better!" is the exact sentence I told my grandmother the other day.
Somebody just decided to invent the internet, so we could sit in front of a screen all day, with no actual human interaction what-so-ever, accomplishing nothing.

I can't lie, I too was a video game addict for a long-long time. I eventually got over it.
I liked the excitement, the adventure, the feeling of self satisfaction when you win a game finally after losing over and over again.


Coming back to now- I clicked on the first of all the 'links', that said, 
'baby names for boys and girls'.
As soon as I clicked on it synchronising with the sound of my mouse, occurred the sound of a doorbell ringing.

As usual I got diverted into thinking about something else and forgot about what was important, the serious thing.
Maybe I did have ADHD.

I rushed towards the door, opening it as my mother and grandmother smiled at me.

"What happened?" I asked.
"Oh nothing serious, your mother was just weak, from all the travelling and packing. The doctor gave a few things to help her regain strength." she said, as I listened on guard.
"From today I don't think she will be doing much, in fact she may not do anything at all, right Aswini?" my grandmother asked my mother, giving her an intimidating look.
"Yes..." my mother nodded softly.

My thinking was very quick. I just surfed through thoughts, one leading to another.

Here's the chain this time0
 Ok so nothing to worry. I wasted so much time on the computer. I'll also eat that pizza as soon as possible before that goes to waste. I wish I hadn't wasted my time too though. Wait what are we going to name the baby?
 
As you can see my chain of thoughts contains the word 'pizza', as always. I keep thinking about pizza. Too bad I can't have any that often.

Chapter-25

Chapter 25

I felt good, as long as she was fine. The only thing we could do until she came back was wait. But after a few minutes my inquisitive mind decided to annoy me again, by asking a few more...questions!

Why aren't they coming back? What if something happened? What if-?

I couldn't take it any more, this time even I couldn't  convince myself. I wish I could just know the answers. I stomped irritated into my room, I just needed answers.


My glasses kept sliding down I didn't like them that way, as I pushed them I remembered someone else who had glasses, Aditya. As I thought of him, I remembered something about him. When he had questions he would use....Google!

I rushed towards the computer, it was big, fat and had a CPU.

The thing was that computers were not advanced then, they were big boxes, complicated (then) but I knew how to use them. My mother used to log into a few websites and showed me how it worked. I was basically an expert on computers, I could type, I could log onto websites, I could play games, I was awesome, or so I thought.

To use it, first we had to switch on the CPU. That was easy, I just had to switch on this black rectangular box, I just had to press a button to do that. I slowly pressed the largest button, slowly because I enjoyed how it 
popped right back, like a spring.

Suddenly the computer turned on. 'Dell' the screen read. All of a sudden the screen turned black. A few options appeared onto the black screen, all written in white, except for one, it was written in black and covered in grey. 'Press enter to start windows normally.' It read, I think (I have windows 8 now).

"Okay..." I thought. I did want windows to start normally, if it goofed up, I would be responsible for its 'abnormality'.
I scanned the keyboard for 'enter', it was right there to the far right of the keyboard. I slowly pressed it (duh I loved buttons). Windows started. Suddenly a new screen appeared, it had various 'icons' and a green grass background, with a bright blue sky.

I searched for internet explorer, we always used it, so good, so efficient (hahaha).
I opened it and went to google.com, I saw my mother use it to find recipes and I was pretty observant, so I caught the hang of it.

Just then I realised something, what was I going to type?
How about trying 'baby'. I slowly (obviously) pushed the letters one by one, as soon as I typed in 'baby' a number of options piled up.
The word 'baby' was written in bold letters in all of them. Baby laugh, baby cute, baby smiling, baby names, were the options. Just then it struck me, what were we going to name the baby?

Chapter-24

Chapter 24

"Mom!" she screamed. "Something is wrong."

As soon as she uttered these words, questions invaded my mind. What could be wrong? What happened? Why did she scream so loud? Is she in pain? Is she okay?

"What's wrong Aswini?" my grandma asked her.

"I'm not sure...but I think we need go, go see a doctor.." she said scared.

"Yes, come, the clinic is pretty close, I'll call the driver." said my grandma also, scared.

This put me into tension. "I'm coming too!" I said as they walked towards the door. 

"You can't." said my mother strictly and firmly, putting me silent. 

This was the first time I got angry out of inquisitivity.

I had so many questions about what was happening and no answers, I was growing impatient, so impatient in fact that I would do anything to find answers.

This is probably why I'm called extremely 

inquisitive, because of this feeling. The feeling that if I don't get answers something would happen to me. Even though I don't usually get angry, questions are the main reason I do.

Any answer is fine, I just need something to calm my brain down, because if I don't get an answer my brain is wired in a way to ask more questions; deeper questions, which I can never find answers to.

But after a few seconds of aggression, came an...answer.

This didn't happen that often, but did happen every time I really thought.

The reason some people don't ask questions is because they don't have any, because they never thought about something so much, so quick that it actually allowed them to have questions about it.

If they do have that thought process, so fast, then eventually, through the stage of aggression they start assuming things, finding;answers.

So this time I did. Here's the thought process-

What happened? She must've felt something was wrong with the baby. But how will she know? Probably because when she had you, she gained experience of what is right and what is wrong. What is wrong? Because she screamed before saying something and also by the way she spoke to you firmly, I assume she was in pain, because when you're in pain you don't like to be annoyed. Why did she have pain? She had a big baby in her belly- of course she would have pain.

A wave of relief spread through my mind, it was a very good feeling, but just then another question popped up-
Will she be okay? What if it's something serious? 
To this I answered myself-
If it was something serious then she would be screaming, considering that she could walk until the door, it seems like it's nothing that serious and if it is, they went to the doctor, he'll take care of it.
Suddenly, there was no tension.

Chapter-23

Chapter 23

I woke up, confused for a second as to why I was not in my room. But after another second, I came back to my senses.

I remembered taking a bath and immediately

falling lazily on the bed. I must've fell asleep without my own knowledge.

But isn't that how everybody falls asleep, without them knowing, drifted in thoughts, that eventually put you to sleep.

One question that always occurs to me is how

I don't fall asleep when I want to. At night when Iay on my bed, ready to fall asleep, I don't. In the middle of a boring conversation, where I have no intention of falling asleep,I do.

Once when I was in my class, my social teacher went on and on about history and politics, I was getting bored and to entertain myself I looked around the class, where I saw some people regrettably going to sleep, on their bench, it's not even comfortable, it's on plain, hard wood.

Just then interrupting my thoughts (as usual), I heard a voice, "Aneesha! Are you up?" yelled my mother.

"Yeah." i said drowsily, letting out a yawn.

"Good, it's dinner time." she said.

Already! How could that be?
Now I had so many questions gathered up about sleeping. 

How do we fall asleep? Why do we fall asleep? Where do we fall asleep? Why don't we know we are sleeping when we're sleeping? Why can't we just wake ourselves up? Who keeps taking away my unicorn when I wake up? How can we sleep for hours without even knowing? If it's a method of relaxation, then why do we sleep when we get bored?

"Coming?" said my mother, cutting into my thoughts again; boy do people like to interrupt my musing.

"Yeah.." I said again.
I got off the bed and felt my feet touch the cold floor, the air conditioning was on throughout the house, so we all didn't become fries and boiled potatoes.

I went into the kitchen still thinking about how we sleep.
"Oh, look who's up.", said my aunt, she was in the kitchen. So she probably didn't hear my mother yelling at me to get up.

"So what's for dinner?" I asked, knowing that it would be something I liked. It was my first day in Chennai and it had been a long time since they had seen me.
"Pizza, the pizza you ate in the afternoon was actually for dinner, there are another two boxes. We thought it would be a surprise." she said.
"Yes!" I screamed.
"But don't get used to it, this is only for today. From tomorrow you're going to eat some good Indian food." she added.

"Okay!" I said enthusiastically. It was surprising that this time I was not jet-lagged, I felt so energetic.
"Call everybody, tell them it's time for dinner. Your mother may not be having more than a slice." she said.
"Why won't she, she loves pizza." I asked confused.
"Because it's not good for the baby, she has to take more nutritious food, we have a separate diet for her." she answered.

Wow, I didn't think it was so serious. Sure my mother had a big belly, couldn't do certain things, took so many tablets and drank more milk than I did, but that didn't mean she couldn't eat what she liked.
I was about to protest when suddenly I heard my mother shout.